Chamber Says Survey Reveals Parking Meter Plan Has Few Supporters

LONG BEACH, NY – The Long Beach Chamber of Commerce reports a survey found that 93.6 percent of respondents oppose a plan to install parking meters in the central business district on Park Avenue, according to the Long Beach Herald.

The Chamber this week released the results of the online survey that also revealed 95.8 percent of respondents were unwilling to pay for an annual permit to park in designated spots in the business district, the Herald reports. A reported 1,684 people took the survey of more than two dozen questions that was posted in early February.

Responding to the survey, John McNally, a City of Long Beach spokesman, said in a statement Wednesday that it was premature to conduct a poll on a program that is still in the development phase, the Herald reports.

“Nonetheless, I don’t think anyone thought it would be popular to charge for something currently free, but we need better parking behavior to help our downtown businesses, and the City needs to diversify its revenue streams so our financial recovery isn’t done on the backs of our residents through property tax increases,” McNally said. “If done well, we think this program can achieve both those ends.”

The city proposed the metering system earlier this year as a means to raise revenue while facing a half-billion debt and long-term liabilities. During a virtual work session held on the proposal in February, McNally said that “free parking is not free,” and that “taxpayers are bearing the cost for street sweeping, pavement replacing [and] street lighting."
By installing meters, the expenses would hopefully be "shared by all 35,000 residents,” he said, and that the metering system would produce a turnover in parking “to benefit the businesses.”

According to the Herald, Chamber Co-chair Leah Tozer said the plan is unfair because businesses outside the Park Avenue business district would be unaffected by the meters, and that the Chamber “isn’t against a parking plan, but it has to be equitable. I don’t think people would have an issue if it was.”